


First Comes Love

by Stripe



Category: Homestuck
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-07
Updated: 2016-01-07
Packaged: 2018-05-12 08:48:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,260
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5660257
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Stripe/pseuds/Stripe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>While on a hike, Rose, Jade, John, and Dave come across a giant tree. So of course, the girls have got to climb it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	First Comes Love

**Author's Note:**

  * For [layne](https://archiveofourown.org/users/layne/gifts).



> Written for this prompt: 
> 
> All the betas are on a hike together, and Jade and Rose decide to climb to the top of a particularly large tree, despite protests from Dave and John. Does a contest flare up? Does someone actually fall and get hurt? Do Jade and Rose smooch at the very top, and stay there for so long that the others leave without them?

The hike went as hikes usually did. Jade charged on ahead of the group like an overexcited dog, rounding back around whenever there was something exciting on the trail that she needed to tell the others about. John and Rose, having grown up in areas where nature was within easy walking distance, maintained a comfortable, easy pace, though they were quick enough that Jade never pulled too far ahead of them. Dave, meanwhile, skulked along in the back, mumbling long-winded complaints about any little wrong that nature committed against him: the humidity, the birds, the uneven trails, leaves. He tagged along because he didn’t want to be left alone at home, but that didn’t mean that he would be quiet about it.

The other three had become masters of blocking him out at this point.

In fact, Rose was just in the process of tuning out one of his irate rambles when Jade suddenly came dashing back down the path again, a huge grin across her face. “Guys! I found the best tree ever!”

“The best tree ever? It must be quite the tree, then,” Rose mused.

“Does it have a power outlet?” Dave chimed in from a few yards back. “That’s literally the only thing that would make a tree at all bearable or useful.”

“Shut up, Dave,” Jade said succinctly, resolutely refusing to let her good mood be ruined by a nature-hating sourpuss. “Anyways, hurry up! You guys should see!”

Rose looked at John just in time to catch him rolling his eyes, but he wasn’t going to grump like a certain other roommate of theirs. “Yeah, yeah, okay, Jade! Lead the way to this awesome tree of yours.”

Jade didn’t need another sign - she ran off down the trail again, leaving the other three to catch up to her at their own pace. Yet soon enough, the tree came into sight - and Jade was right. It was impressive, towering over its nearby tree brethren. It looked like something mystical, sacred, ancient.

And based on the way that Jade was jumping up and down beside it, she was intent on clambering up its branches. 

“Jade,” Rose said, raising an eyebrow and trying not to smile too hard. “What are you doing?”

“We should climb it!” Jade said. “Look at how big it is! I bet you could see our house from the top!” She was bouncing on the balls of her feet, looking to the other three. 

Dave, predictably, was the first to turn her down. “Jade, if I so much as brush up against that thing with my pinky finger, I’m going to be so coated in splinters that when you bring me to the hospital to remove all of them, they’ll be like, ‘what the fuck, why did you bring a porcupine in here, you guys are blind.”

“Yeah, I don’t know Jade,” John admitted, rubbing the back of his neck. “Not that climbing trees isn’t fun or anything, but I'm not really feeling it right now. I just want to keep going with this nice, normal hike which has exactly zero splinters or broken bones so far." 

At this point, Rose was fully expecting Jade to turn to her and unleash her secret weapon - puppy dog eyes. She was incredibly good at them, and often used them to get her way, whether that be monopolizing the kitchen for one of her failed cooking experiments or monopolizing the television to watch a Squiddles rerun.

But Rose was prepared. She had been preparing a defense for the puppy dog eyes - a cold, steely heart which would never bend under the pressure of a cute girl’s most convincing, persuasive face-

“Rose, I bet you don’t want to just because you _know_ I’d beat you up.”

Oh no she _didn’t_.

“Excuse you. I’ll have you know I was raised in a forest, and I will not hear such blatant lies and accusations hurled at me. I would most certainly beat you to the top, Jade.”

“Then prove it!”

Rose took a moment to assess the situation she had gotten herself into. Before her was the largest tree that she had ever seen in person, which Jade would undoubtedly began to scale as soon Rose gave the word. She was much more suited to challenges of nature, like this one, but Rose also wouldn’t allow herself to be branded a coward.

“You’re on.”

And thus, the race to the top of the tree began. Jade got a head start, simply due to proximity, but Rose was not about to let her win. She took the opposite side of the tree, relying on luck that there would be more accessible branches around there. Soon, she was even with Jade, and a particularly daring leap pulled her up an entire body’s length ahead. She could hear Jade underneath her, growling like a dog. But Rose would not be defeated.

She kept climbing, letting her gut instinct drive her as she pulled herself from branch to branch. She was winning - she was going to upstage Jade, jungle girl extraordinaire. She reached up to pull herself to the next branch and-

**_CRACK!_ **

The shock of the branch coming away in her hand had Rose tumbling off of the branch she had been perched on. She felt her heart stop for a moment; the tree was huge, and she had scaled a good portion of it. It was unlikely she’d hit the ground unscathed.

Rose braced herself for the harsh reality of the ground - but instead, she fell into something warm, squishy, and Jade-shaped. She dared to crack open one eye - and sure enough, there was Jade, looking down at her with concern, her hair gold around the edges from where the light was shining through.

“Geez, Rose! Are you okay?”

Rose opened both eyes and sat up. She realized that she was in Jade’s lap, and that Jade herself was nestled in a spot against the trunk of the tree and the branch they were on, which kept her stable and balanced. How on earth Jade had managed to catch her without falling herself was a mystery, but Rose was not about to look a gift horse in the mouth.

“Yes. I am alright - a little shaken, but in one piece.”

“You really shouldn’t have acted so cocky!” Jade criticized, pulling her into a tight hug. “What would you have done if I hadn’t been here?”

“I wouldn’t have been on the tree in the first place. I don’t tend to race against myself.”

Jade laughed, which was perhaps inappropriate for the situation, but Rose didn’t mind at all. All she could do was stare up at her savior, even if said savior was now busy looking out over the branches of the tree.

“Rose, the view from here is beautiful!” 

“Indeed it is.”

And if now wasn’t the perfect moment, then when was it? Rose leaned in and pressed her lips to Jade’s, wrapping her arms around the other girl’s shoulders. Jade soon kissed back with equal fervor, and Rose soon lost time of how long they had been up there. Was it a second? A minute? An hour? It felt like an eternity.

But it had to end eventually. Jade slowly pulled back, a grin on her face, and the strangest sound began to filter into Rose’s perception. It sounded mysteriously like Dave chanting while John snickered in the background.

“Jade and Rose, sitting in a tree. K-I-S-S-I-N-G. First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes baby in a-”

“Shut up, Dave!”

**Author's Note:**

> this is so cheesy and i am so sorry


End file.
